It's an Easter egg thing by Jearise

I told you I really liked making these Easter eggs out of paper mache and you might say I've gotten carried away with them but there are so many different possibilities that I just can't stop.

This is my last hanging egg for this year and I got a little bumpy with it but I like the way it turned out.

There are only three steps to making this egg:

1. Use Adirondack dabber to dab on the paint color of your choice. I used wild plum from Cutters Creek.

2. Spray with gloss acrylic spray to give a shine and seal the egg.

3. Add half pearls in various colors and sizes. I used purple ones but you can use pretty much any color you would like. Cutters Creek has some great self adhesive steal blue ones that would look pretty on most any colored egg.

Leave the ribbon on or hot glue ribbon on for looks or hanging and you're done!

Hope you enjoyed this quick step by step tutorial and I look forward to showing you more of my creations in the future.

Hanging Easter Eggs Design 2 by Jearise

I'm back today to show some more paper mache eggs I got creative with.

These were so simple to make and they turned out awesome. I used two colors of Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers. For the top egg, I first dabbed on espresso to cover the whole egg and then when that was dry, I dabbed on gold. For the bottom egg, I first completely covered the egg in pool color and then dabbed on copper.

Thanks for stopping by again today.

Jearise

Hanging Easter Eggs with Jearise

I am putting up Easter decoration and thought I would try my hand at decorating my own paper mache eggs. I was at the craft store and looking at how expensive already decorated ones are and I thought that I might as well try it myself and see what happens.

I was so happy with the way these turned out.

I started out by dabbing sections of the egg with Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers. I did a section at a time so that I could turn the egg without getting paint all over me and it was easier to find something to put the egg on to dry. I used a shot glass. Once it was all painted and dried I went back and used Stickles Glitter Glue to create various designs on each egg. Finally, I attached a satin ribbon with hot glue and there ya go. You may want to seal them with acrylic spray paint so they last for years to come. You can use gloss or flat to create different finishes. 

Tomorrow I'll have two more eggs with very different designs from today to show you so please join me again. 

Shadow Box by Jearise

Today I would like to present a shadow box I made that is going to be auctioned off this weekend. I love making shadow boxes and just adding the 3D effects that make it all come together.

I didn't add the frame for this picture because I was getting a glare from the glass.  Here are a close up of my flowers.

I used the Cricut Flower Shoppe cartridge to make the flowers. Please email Kim if you are interested in this great cartridge. I then used Perfect Pearls Mists in Heirloom gold to spritz the flowers.

This is where your journaling can be written or you can stamp a sentiment here.

I used CUTTLEBUG 5X7 Embossing Plus-Fanciful Labels to cut out the label and then I lifted the flap and used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye to ink the raised part.

The center paper where the photo goes is from the 6 x 6 Authentique bundle which was one of the pads that I received in Kim's 6 x 6 paper pad club. Please email Kim if you're interested in future clubs.

Here is the final picture with the frame on.

I used an Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber in gold to paint the outside of my plain black frame and give it an antique look.

I also used my ATG gun to adhere the photo area and tag to the background paper and I used Glue Dots to adhere the flowers.

Bye for now! Jearise

Ye Olde St. Patty's Decor by Laura C

Have you enjoyed our National Craft Month posts this week?

Hopefully you are inspired to get crafty this month!!

One of my favorite things to do is altered art projects, so for

our special National Craft Month posting, I mixed the fun of

altered art with the idea of home decor for one of my favorite

holidays.....St. Patrick's Day!  And so,  St. Paddy's Pub was born:

This project is the kind of thing National Craft Month is about,

to me....just playing!!  With paper, and ink, and tools....it's

all about fun!  I have a few close ups of the steps along the way:

I started with a divided box I picked up on clearance, it's

similar to a Tim Holtz Configurations Box, the edges are

 painted with an Adirondack Paint Dauber (I used Lettuce)

And here is the side view:

I covered the sides and the B&W strip in each cubby

using Core d'nations embossed cardstock, you can do

this yourself or use a pre-embossed type, then sand to

bring out the embossing.  And then I started the cubby

decorations, using bits and pieces of different items:

I used a lot of different Idea-Ology products.....everything

you see here plus a few others on the finished project.
Lost & Found Paper pad, Cash Keys (charm on the calendar
with shamrock sticker inside),Clock Keys (lantern "hanger"),
Corked Vials (small glass jars in small cubby), Game Pieces
 (bingo #17 in red), Plaquettes (porcelain looking #17) , 

Ornate Plates (in lower cubby with Ruler Ribbon inside),
Locket Keys (metal piece on Pub Sign under shamrock),
 Ruler Ribbon (inside ornate plate), Memo Pins (stuck into
wooden spools lower right cubby) and Hanger Clips (holds
small piece of burlap with shamrock sticker in lower cubby),
Salvage Stickers--Crowded Attic (label on mini vial).

  Kim can order you any and all of these fun goodies!
The vials are colored using Adirondack alcohol inks
in Meadow and Sunshine, the calendar is distressed

with a Tonic distress tool, and Distress Ink in Walnut Stain

and Black Soot.  Tiny Attacher staples finish it.

In the close up of this cubby, you'll see I added one of the 

Idea-Ology Woodlands Miniatures dyed with re-inker in a

Mini Mister bottle mixed with water, accented with Paper Twine,

and you can see the Mini Lantern hanging from the clock key

(Yes it's lit up....the battery pack is attached to the back!):

A close up of the left side....

 

I used saved corks (love to recycle!) in addition to the

Tim Holtz goodies.....each cubby is outlined with

Tinsel Twine.....this is FUN stuff....so many different uses!

The top of my little "pub" is a medallion stamped on black

cardstock and embossed with WOW embossing powder 

(the Metalline Green color), the letters are cut out of the the 

Lost and Found pad, inked with Black Soot Ink, layered onto 

chipboard and then painted with Rock Candy Crackle Paint to 

give them an old antique tile look, you can see in the close up:

 

And a close up of the last two cubbies....a little twine,

and Glossy Accents on the bottle cap....and Distress

Stain in Peeled Paint on the wooden spools:

And a final look from a different angle at the finished project:

My "go to" adhesives for a project like this are Scor-Tape

and Glossy Accents.  They really hold, and are both

available in Cutter's Creek. Same goes for the products

used in my project....many are already in-store, and the

others can be ordered any time!  

Hope we have inspired you this week to join in our

National Craft Month fun with some projects of your own!

Tell us what you are inspired to make!! 

Inspiration for the New Year...by Laura C

Do you have goals or dreams you'd like to accomplish
in the next year? Maybe ideas you'd like to keep track of?
This project is a small "reminder" of those things you want
to keep in mind. I've included a simple "how-to" so you
can make your own mini inspiration board:
 

And a close up:

I started with an inexpensive wooden frame from
the craft store and my supplies:
 

I painted the frame, using the Adirondack
daubers in Aqua...I used a pouncing method
to do this....hopefully you can see the bumpy
texture in this pic....(you can see in the first
pic of the finished project, I added some color
around the edges with Sunset Orange as well):

Once that dried, I turned over the frame
applied Scor-Tape to the entire inside
edge, and then cut and stuck my twine
down in the pattern I wanted (making
sure it was VERY tight!) making this:

Next up....2 layers of foam tape on top of the
Scor-Tape and twine layer:

Then I made a backing piece out of left
over chipboard from a paper pack (I'm a
pack rat, what can I say?) and some
pretty patterned paper....so many options
in Kim's store....Graphic 45 or Echo Park
collections lend themselves to these projects!

The paper was adhered with Scor-Tape, and
then the entire backing adhered to the foam
tape on the back of the frame....it gave just
enough depth to be a usable memo board,
which you can hopefully see from this pic:

Now for embellishing....the FUN part!!
I die cut little memo pieces....dressed
them up with embossing powder, and
Distress Ink (I used Rusty Hinge and
WOW embossing powder--some ovals
I stamped reminder messages on).  The
roses are Prima Fairytale Roses (I used
the Poppyfield and Baby Pink), the bird
was embossed with the WOW and then
inked with Distress Ink--this pic below
shows that, and how I embossed my
sentiment, then traced around it using the
inside of the Spellbinders die (Fancy Tags Two)
so I could cut it to fit the die cut frame:

And more embellishing goodies....Want2Scrap
Nestabling (the tag after being diecut was attached
to the matching Nestaboard as well....this stuff is
awesome if you've never tried it!).  The stick pin
made from beads in my stash, buttons, some twine,
Want2Scrap swirl bling was cut apart to fit the top of my
frame. And the tiny clothes pins are from Canvas Corp,
the Mini Clothespins in Natural (YES...Kim has these
in the store!)....I painted them with the Adirondack
Sunset Orange paint.

So there you have it....a great project to jump start
a creative, productive New Year!  Would be a
cute project for small school photos too!

Happy Crafting!!

PS....remember, if one of these items is not in store and
you'd love to have it....you can always ask Kim!!

Tutorial Tuesday....Water Stamping by Laura C

I'm always on the lookout for a new
technique to try, and it seems there
is always a new way to use your
stamps.  This technique is called
"Water Stamping" and here is the
card I made using a variation of
this:

The technique starts with using
dye inks (I used Distress Inks:
Seedless Preserves & Black Soot)
and applying them to your white
cardstock:

The heavier the application the
better here...I did go lighter,
because I wanted more of a
"washed" effect to keep it
spooky for Halloween.

Next, you choose a favorite
stamp, and you can do one of
two things....spritz the stamp with
a mist of water (I did this using the
Inkssentials Mini Mister) or you
can use a VERY wet paper towel
in a pie plate or something similar
and dab the stamp on that (as if
you were dabbing it on an actual
ink pad)....then stamp onto the
inked surface.  You can let this
air dry, or use a heat tool or a
quick iron on the BACK of your
image, my result was this:

This image came from the Tim Holtz
Winter Sketchbook stamp set.  It
looks like a great spooky image....
and I added a second stamp of the
tree in Black Soot Ink to define the
image, then dressed the card up
using the new MME Lost & Found
Halloween collection paper, and
a sentiment from the paper punch
out sheet, bling from Want2Scrap,
black & white twine, and I brushed
the edges of the card with Eggplant
Adirondack Paint Dauber from Kim's
club.  I couldn't help but add a bit of
black burlap behind the image too for
some fun texture.

And the finished card once again:

This technique is one that is fun to
experiment with....different inks,
applying more/less ink, more/less
water....so many possibilities!

Hope you are inspired to try this
technique and have a little inky fun!